Jeff Bursey names My Struggle Book One and In Red as two of his favorite reads this year in The Quarterly Conversation.

#1: My Struggle, by Karl Ove Knausgaard. This hit me where I write and in what I think of family relations. To the first: the play of ideas mixed with the recitation of events is powerful.

Too few writers think that ideas can be exciting, and they belabour plot and character instead. To the second: the re-appraisal of family relations means more to me now than it might have five years go, for example, and how Knausgaard approaches that topic, with reservations and with something bordering on the heedless is incredibly engaging. Intellectually appealing and emotionally rewarding…

#4: In Red, by Magdalena Tulli. Short, visionary and ominous, with no real interest in character but with a deep look into humanity.